What the hell are CDs? and why would you rip them?

Yes, I completely agree with this post. You aren't allowed to have done drugs in the past 7 years, but that's when people do their drugs if they're just out of college. The lie detector test for the TS/SCI is a big turnoff to a lot of geeks. Relax the rules a bit and get more smart people.

The real problem is that security-related government jobs require security clearances and lie detector tests that exclude a large portion of geeks, in my opinion. They want to make sure you haven't done a bunch of drugs in the past 7 years, but for most smart geeks, that's the time they usually did their drugs. They need to relax the rules on some drugs if they want more talent.

The post seems to say there is more to intelligence than abstract reasoning. How else do you differentiate Man and beast other than the ability for abstraction (aside from the ability to communicate it, I guess). Every other aspect of the human mind is exhibited in other animals, but we are the only ones able to understand our world as a set of abstract concepts. Abstraction is vital in our ability to teach our offspring, to create new tools, to find new strategies. Behaviors that take evolution millenia to develop can be conceptualized and executed in mere seconds by a capable human.

How do you go through an ordeal like that and then spend your time writing that much about it? You can never get the time back you spent rambling about some bug fixes.

You are making that number up because the studies show that medication is the only effective treatment for ADHD. Cognitive and Behavioral Therapy has been shown to have virtually no effect when compared to drugs. Furthermore, there is virtually no additional alleviation of symptoms when medication is combined with CBT. You can dream all you want, but you're just wrong.

Is it ethical to take away stimulant medication from a person who has been thriving due to their ADHD being successfully managed? How does a doctor adhere to the Hippocratic Oath of "Do no harm" and deny the patient access to a medication that has changed their life?

I disagree entirely with your statement. You are making generalizations about a topic you obviously don't know anything about. While there are certainly people who fit your description, there are many who do not.

I've been taking Adderall for a long time, and there are definitely side effects even if you don't abuse it. Also, you are using illegal drugs if you don't have a prescription.

Me take adderall long time. I not soulless ghoul

In high school, I had my own web development company and was an accomplished, award-winning saxophone player but I struggled getting the grades I should have been able to get for a reason that I couldn't understand. I was diagnosed with ADHD in 10th grade and set upon a journey involving virtually every drug recommended for the disorder. I settled upon Adderall and have been taking it ever since. Reading through the comments on this page, I find it amusing that everyone seems to have such a black and white opinion on the subject. I, on the other hand, really don't know what to think.

Studies show that nothing is more effective at treating ADHD than stimulants and cognitive therapy does virtually nothing without drugs. Furthermore, people who control their ADHD with medication are FAR more likely to avoid substance abuse than if they leave their condition untreated. I'm sure everyone knows a really smart kid in high school who smoked their life away on weed and never made anything of themselves. I know that I personally would have probably gone this route, as I was already heading in that direction. Finally, stimulants like Adderall haven't been shown to have any real long term health consequences and (contrary to popular belief) are not particularly addictive if taken as directed.

Anyone who has been to college in the past decade can tell you that Adderall can certainly help you cram for tests. Does that mean it gives them an advantage? I really don't think so. I've crammed for a lot of tests, and unless you're a business or mass communication major, you are not going to get an A by cramming. Try cramming a month's worth of organic chemistry in one night with some Adderall. You'll probably pass, but you definitely aren't getting an A. People get A's on tests by keeping up with the work. Not to mention the horrific day you have after cramming all night on speed. The biggest advantage I saw with Adderall was playing Quake 3, and even then there were people a lot better than me that used nothing but Mountain Dew.

I guess what I'm saying is that I think that people are overestimating the power of stimulants. Their biggest advantage is that you can stay up later, but if you don't take the drug regularly, you will also not be able to get to sleep. You'll also not eat enough and will probably have issues with sexual dysfunction. If that sounds like an unfair advantage to you, I don't know what to tell you.

if you're saying that today's number of news stories conjured from the depths of journalism hell is the same number as before CNN debuted, then you're just being a troll.

Name one thing that has damaged our society more than 24 hours news with their constant pressure to generate an audience by conjuring up fake news.

I recently re-read a lot of Heinlein books, including the Moon is a Harsh Mistress and found that I now see his writing for what it is. He is misogynistic, preachy, and focuses on polygamy and nudity obsessively and at length in several of his books. Even Stranger in a Strange Land turned absolutely retarded at about the halfway mark.

As an older computer engineer, I would bet that your schooling is obsolete and that you haven't been keeping up on current information theory. I found The Information: A History, a Theory, a Flood by James Gleick utterly fascinating. It is long-winded at times, but it changed the way I perceive the world and changed how I approach programming and developing systems. We are on the cusp of a revolution in computer science/information theory towards semantic systems and this book gives a great glimpse into current philosophy and theory.